Offshore staff
HOUSTON – New Zealand has passed the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill into law and also released the 2013 exploration data pack.
“This bill is key to New Zealand realizing the potential value of these resources. It supports the government’s objective of growing the petroleum and minerals sectors, while ensuring better coordination of health and safety and environmental oversight,” Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges says.
The stated purpose of the bill is to:
· Encourage Crown-owned minerals resource development so that it contributes more to New Zealand’s economic growth
· Streamline the permitting regime where appropriate, ensuring it aligns with the government’s regulatory reform agenda and better equipping it to deal with future developments and technologies
· Ensure better coordination between regulatory agencies to support high health and safety and environmental standards throughout the full cycle of resource development, i.e. during exploration, production, and decommissioning of wells.
At the same time, the government released the 2013 New Zealand Petroleum Exploration Data Pack. The pack contains a selection ofpetroleum exploration data on areas of current and potential exploration interest in New Zealand. The three main data sets cover the Taranaki basin; and the Reinga-Northland, East Coast, and Great South-Canterbury provinces.
The package includes more than 146,000 km (90,720 mi) of 2D and 11,000 sq km (4,247 sq mi) of 3D seismic data; a selection of well data, drilling, processing, and geological reports, along with satellite seep study data and reports; and composite LAS files for each of 72 exploration wells.
4/19/13
